Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Schatz
Nothing interesting to see in the background of Ju 88 G-6, White E, but maybe the buildings help to identify the location.
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Hi Simon,
The building in the background is the "Flugleitung" of Fliegerhorst Dedelstorf, the picture of "White E" was cut on the right side just before the "control tower". See attached pictures. (The windows have been altered slightly at a later stage, but it's obviously the same building.)
"White A" and "White E" belonged to I./KG66 ("my" unit of interest). In April 1945, I./KG66 discovered some brand new Ju 88 G-6 nightfighters without fuel on a German airfield. They were quickly refuelled and "borrowed" for the rest of the war. With their 20 mm guns, these aircraft excelled at strafing ground targets ("Strassenjagd") and hence proved very popular with their crews. Together with some Ju 88 S-3s and Ju 188 D-2s/D-3s, "White A" and "White E" were part of a group of I./KG66 aircraft that landed at Dedelstorf on 8 May 1945. They had started very early that day from Stavanger-Sola in Norway in order to evacuate German soldiers from the Kurland pocket. (At least that was the intention, most crews had no interest in risking captivity by the Russians and decided to fly straight to Germany instead….) As the crews were already familiar with Dedelstorf (some had even girlfriends there) from a previous posting in September 1944 - March 1945, a considerable number decided to land there. With the exception of 2 pilots, all were immediately captured by the Americans (which is obviously were the pictures in this thread came from).
NB 1: The pictures of the wrecked He 111 Z ("Zwilling") and Go 242 earlier in this thread were also taken at Dedelstorf.
NB2: For those of you scrambling to Google Earth (try "Dedelstorfer Allee, Dedelstorf"): Fliegerhorst Dedelstorf survived the war relatively intact and postwar became a Bundeswehr Barracks (later with M-109 Self Propelled Houwitzers). In 1994 it became one of the first victims of the End of the Cold War when it was closed down. In 2018, this little gem of a prewar Fliegerhorst was completely destroyed - with the exception of the beautiful Kasino (thanks to the so-called "Denkmalschütz") - when someone bought the terrain and converted it into a private hunting ground…On Google Earth, only a shadow of its former self remains…
Best regards,
Marcel van Heijkop
I./KG66 Research